Time to welcome the foreigners?

Immigration is all over the news all the time in England. There are always debates in the paper about whether or not immigrants are a good thing for the country and should they be made welcome on our shores.
That is a debate that will run and run but what about the immigrants of the animal world? There are so many animals around the world that have made itt to somewhere they don't belong. Many have thrived and some cause problems to native wildlife. You only have to look at the damage being caused in Australia by the Cane toad (Bufo marinus). There are ozzy possums running riot in New Zealand, not to mention foxes and rabbits.
In the UK we have our "immigrants" too and one of them may come as a bit of a shock. We all know about mink. They were being farmed for their fur in captivity when some escaped and others were liberated by well-meaning but naive animal rights activists. The water vole population has suffered as a result.
Now we have Indian Ringneck parakeets flying free over London and Canada Geese swimming alonsgide our beautiful Aylesbury Ducks. Wild boar have escaped and are reclaiming the forests they once roamed.
My favourite of our "aliens" is the Grey Squirrel, an animal that is not native and cannot legally be released into the wild even if it was rescued and helped to recover. This seems a bit wrong to me. If you haven't read about Horatio the squirrel on my blog go back and read his story. Had it been possible to catch him and help him recover from his injuries it would be illegal to let him go back in the wild. I hate this law, why should a wild animal be caused suffering by being kept in a cage when it was born in the wild here and does not pose a significant threat to other animals.
The squirrel issue really winds me up. Yes they pass disease to red squirrels, but guess what they catch diseases from reds too. The real villian in the plight of the red squirrel is man for cutting down their trees and building houses and roads through their habitat.
Surely by now it must be time to accept our immigrant animals where they are not causing significant harm to native wildlife, I think so.

I conclude with some products from ny store Natural Beauty showing these "aliens" free and wild doing what they do and charming us all.

Canada Goose Mug by Fallen_Angel_483
Make cheap personalized mugs with zazzle

Canada Goose Mousepad by Fallen_Angel_483
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Goosing around Canada Goose Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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Canada Goose Print by Fallen_Angel_483
Poster printing by zazzle

Grey Squirrel Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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Squirrel balancing act Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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Squirrel on the fence Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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Squirrel sitting on the fence Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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The tale of Horatio the squirrel part 1

As promised here is a story about the struggle to survive endured by a cute little squirrel that has been visitng my garden for over a year now. I knew there was a squirrel about when I encountered some buried Hazelnuts in a flower bed I was preparing for planting up last spring. I decided to start putting nuts out myself to help the squirrel out a bit. I feed the birds in the garden so I figured why not feed the squirrel too.
Of course this little squirrel was so shy I never actually got to see it. Imagine my shock then when one day I noticed this adorable little ball of grey fluff on the bird table. I was so excited to finally see the squirrel I had been feeding for weeks that I dashed to get my camera.
I took a few snaps then attempted to get closer. I was delighted that I was able to get halfway down the garden to get some shots of the little furball. I was somewhat less delighted when I uploaded the photos to my PC. Here are a couple of the photos I took that day.

and over the next couple of days I took these images of the hapless creature.

I hate to see animals suffer and these injuries really looked bad. There was no chance of catching the squirrel and getting it to a vet so I just made sure there was food and water there for it and kept my fingers crossed.
Find out what happened to the squirrel in part 2 of the tale of Horatio the squirrel coming soon.